In a combat situation, a soldier is typically provided with an ammunition can that contains reserve ammunition, such as bullets. However, offer partial use of the reserve ammunition, the soldier is not provided with an accurate means for counting the ammunition remaining in the ammunition can. As a result, it has become necessary for the soldier to manually open and inspect the ammunition can, in order to manually count the number of the remaining rounds.
In the event of a fire fight, the soldier, not desiring to be short on ammunition, and incapable of wasting time to count the rounds remaining in the ammunition can, exchanges a partially full ammunition can with an ammunition can that contains the maximum number of rounds.
During reload, if a can is not refilled, the soldier may end up with less ammunition than is required. After a firefight, it is common practice to turn in all the ammunition cans that contain less than the original number of rounds. Such logistics cause a waste of valuable manpower and resources.
Therefore, there is still remains an unsatisfied need for an ammunition can having an integrated counter, for automatically and accurately notifying the soldier, or a command center, of the number of remaining rounds in the ammunition can.